Line 18: £3 Million Per Day County Lines Drugs Business Fuelling Knife Crime news.sky.com

We can also reveal that the business is worth over £3 million a day.

Sky News has obtained exclusive access to people involved in this ruthless trade, from wholesalers to drugs mules.
Our investigation demonstrates how this brutal business is contributing to the rise in knife crime across the UK.

We started out in a "trap house" in north London. This is where drugs are prepared, sold and taken.

Here, a drug wholesaler brandishing a Rambo knife boasted that the weapon was "just something I give to the kids who go out for me".

With money and drugs strewn across the table, his colleague explained: "There's always problems with other dealers – so you've got to sort out your problem.

"You give the kids a weapon. They go up there and they do it. Once you've sorted out one or two problems, they tend not to come to you."
As we interviewed them, the two dealers sold crack cocaine to a 42-year-old addict – Mark Page.

He said he spent all the money he had on drugs.
"Once I start I can't stop," he told us.

Then one of the dealers gave a detailed account of how gangs within the capital are seeking out more rural markets.

He said: "Most of our business is outside of London. Me and my buddy go somewhere and find a crackhead. I'll give them some rock (crack cocaine) for their numbers, their friends.

"Once an area is established, I'll get the kids to go out there for me."

The children are paid £300 or £400 a week and age between 12 and 16.
"The younger the better," said one dealer, adding: "They need money, mummy and daddy ain't got no money. So they come to uncle."

He offers an induction week for his new recruits, which he called "boot camp".

The county line itself is a phone line, controlled by the dealer, which is sometimes given to the runner who the addicts can contact for a delivery.

The wholesaler in north London said he operates "like a pharmacy where you can get anything".

But he had a chilling warning for anyone